# Random audits of published, funded research, like tax audits

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-random-audit/  
OnCo record `idea-tr2-random-audit` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Funders should randomly select a small fraction of the papers they paid for and check the raw data, analysis and records, with public results. The possibility of an audit changes behaviour.

## Summary

Research misconduct investigations are triggered by complaints, which is slow and rare. Randomly selecting 1 to 2% of funded publications per year for a data and records audit (raw data availability, analysis reproducibility, image integrity, cell-line and reagent documentation), carried out by an independent office with published aggregate results, would create a deterrent and an evidence base on the prevalence of problems.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Audits will find serious reproducibility or integrity problems in at least 5% of sampled papers, and adopting funders will see this rate fall by half over five years.
- Rationale: Random audits deter tax evasion at low audit rates because the expected cost of detection is high; the same logic applies to research where career consequences are severe.
- Proposed test: One funder audits 100 randomly selected funded oncology papers per year; publish aggregate findings and track the rate.
- Maturity: speculative
- Actor: philanthropy

## Sources

- Bottleneck evidence (Preclinical results do not reproduce): Errington et al., Investigating the replicability of preclinical cancer biology (eLife 2021): https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.71601

## Connected records

- ideas: [Deposit the raw blots, gels and microscopy images behind every figure](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-raw-image-deposit/), [Journals check that data links actually work, and flag papers whose data vanish](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-data-link-enforcement/)
- bottlenecks: [Preclinical results do not reproduce](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-reproducibility/)

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